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Personal from...
(Continued from page 2)
[against it] shall be cut in pieces,
though all the people of the earth
be gathered against it. ... In that
day will 1 make the governors of
Judah like an hearth of fire
among the wood, and like a torch
of fire in a sheaf; and they shall
devour all the people round
about, on the right hand and on
the left: and Jerusalem shaJI be
inhabited again....
"In that day [now soon] shall
the LORD defend the inhabitants
of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble
among them at that .day shall be
as David; and the house of David
shall be as God, as the angel of
the LORD before them" (Zecha–
riah 12:2-3, 6, 8).
1 pause here to mention some–
thing that may or may not be
significant-God knows and time
will tell. I, personally, am o(the
house of David. l have my person–
al ancestry recorded every gener–
ation through my father , his
father and so on back to King
Edward 1 of England. And,
through the royal ancestry of the
British dynasty the ancestry is
traced back to the ancient King
David of Israel. Already God has
given me close and warm favor in
the eyes of many leaders in the
State of Israel. A Message (Isaiah
40:9- 1
O)
is yet to go by a servant
of God to THE CITIES OF JUDAH.
In whatever way God wills, it
shaJJ go.
But now continue in Zechariah
12:9: "And it shall come to pass
in that day, that 1 will seek to
destroy all the nations that come
against Jerusalem."
But at Christ's coming as
KlNG
of kings to rule ALL NATIONS- to
usher in WORLD PEACE- He shall
again choose Jerusalem as H1s
CAPJTAL-then to become the
CA PITAL FROM WHICH THE
WHOLE WORLD SHALL
BE
RULED
FOR A THOUSAND YEARS!
1 personally have come to love
Jerusalem, as 1 know my friend
Teddy Kollek !oves it, and 1
expect to spend much time there
in the future-if Christ so
wills!
o
44
(Continued from page 5)
whatsoever a man soweth, that
shall he also reap" (Galatians
6:7). Those who commit crimes
should get what they deserve–
not be able to go free by wran–
gling an immunity deal.
The Bible, on the other hand,
recog.nizing man has such limited
means of finding the facts of a
case, requires tHat witnesses must
be t ruthful (Exodus 20:16: "Thou
shalt not bear false witness ...").
The Old Testament makes perju–
ry a severely punished crime:
" ... if the witness be a false wit–
ness, and hath testified falsely
against his brother; then shaJJ ye
do unto him, as he had thought to
have done unto his broth–
er ..." (Deuteronomy 19.:18-19).
And yet in the McDuffie case,
the judge had to emphasize to the
jury that the witnesses could be
lying: "A witness who realizes he
must procure his own freedom by
incriminating others has a motive
to fal sify."
What l s Trut h ?
The ability of the natural (what
the Bible calls carnal) human
mind to know the whole truth of a
situation is severely limited. Jt is
often very difficult to be sure of
what really happened . To over–
come this limitation, human jus–
tice in countries having the An–
glo-Saxon legal system have de–
veloped the jury system. The
basic principie is that two heads
are better than one. This is in
agreement with the basic biblical
principie: "in the multitude of
counsellors there is safety" (Prov–
erbs 11:14).
And yet jurors are human, and
are, unlike God (Acts 10:34),
"respecters of persons." The jury
which acquitted McDuffie's mur–
derers was all white. Of course,
they weren't supposed to let any
racial factors affect their judg–
ment. But many, including those
who rioted afterwards, believe
otherwise.
And yet while the idea of a
jury is based on the multitude–
of-counselors principie, the par-
ticular jury in the McDuffie case
seemed to violate the principie. A
jury normally consists of 12 per–
sons-the same number as Christ
chose as H is original apostles.
The McDuffie case jury had only
six. Perhaps, if the j ury had been
larger, they might not have been
so quick to return a not-guilty
verdict. The jury was all white
because the judge moved the trial
away from Miami to an area
where there are fewer black resi–
dents on the jury lists, and
because the defense lawyers were
able to challenge all potential
black jurors who were available.
This last points up a growing
problem in American justice.
Because lawyers are able to chal–
Jenge jurors, they are using that
privilege to mold juries in ways
that they believe will be favorable
to their clients. They know cer–
tain kinds of people are biased
certain ways.
The Bible, on the other hand,
seeks to remove justice as much
as possible from merely human
factors. The Bible's system of
justice seeks truth-unfiltered by
human emotions and feelings:
"Thou shalt not pervert the judg–
ment of the stranger, nor of the
fatherless ... " (Deuteronomy
24: 17). In God's system of jus–
tice, it makes no difference who
the judge is or who the defendant
is. Color, class, sex are all factors
that the Bible says very clearly
should never affect the outcome
of a case: " ... if ye have respect
to persons, ye commit sin ..."
(James 2:9).
Unfortunately, when justice is
left in the hands of mortals,
judges and juries
are
respecters
of persons. Accordingly, juries
should be made up of enough
individuals to "dilute" their hu–
man tendency . Had the jury in
the McDuffie case been larger,
racial biases might have been eas–
ily overcome. Many people have a
very hard time believing that a
12-person jury, including a num–
ber of blacks, would have re–
turned the same verdict.
The Bungling Re ve nge r
God lays on human rulers the
duty to punish evildoers: " For he
The PLAIN TRUTH